William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
Volume 9 | Issue 2
Article 7
Transcript of Speech on American Atheists'
Position on Religion in the Public Schools
Ellen Johnson
Repository Citation
Ellen Johnson, Transcript of Speech on American Atheists' Position on Religion in the Public Schools, 9
Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 455 (2001), http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmborj/vol9/iss2/7
Copyright c 2001 by the authors. This article is brought to you by the William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository.
http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmborj
TRANSCRIPT OF SPEECH ON AMERICAN ATHEISTS'
POSITION ON RELIGION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Ellen Johnson*
Religious discussion in American public schools is one of the more
controversialissues in modern education. Ellen Johnson not only explains the
American Atheists 'position on the issue, but also presents observationsfrom the
often-ignoredAtheistperspective. Johnson'sremarks serve to remind us that there
are other views on the subject besides the popular opinions concerning
accommodationand access to schoolfacilities.
American Atheists is a non-profit, non-political, educational organization
dedicated to the absolute separation of government and religion.' American
Atheists has been involved with the matter of religion in the public schools since
the early 1960s.2 It was the founder of this organization, Madalyn Murray-O'Hair,
who was the successful litigant in the 1963 Supreme Court case of Murray v.
Curlett,3 which determined that administration-organized prayers and mandatory
Bible recitation in the public schools were unconstitutional.' It has been repeatedly
overlooked that this decision made the public school system equally accessible for
all American children.
Atheists take the position that the First Amendment and related court rulings
such as Lee v. Weisman,5 Lemon v. Kurtzman," Murray v. Curlett,7 and Engel v.
Vitale,' as well as the Federal Equal Access Act9 guarantee the proper roles of both
the free exercise and establishment clauses in our civil institutions.
We also note that in the United States there are over 350,000 churches,
mosques, chapels, temples, and other "houses of worship," not including the
• President, American Atheists. This transcript represents Ms. Johnson's comments at
the William & Mary Institute of Bill of Rights Law's "Religion in the Public Schools"
Student Symposium.
See American Atheists, at http://www.atheists.org.
2
Seeid.
Murray v.Curlett, sub nom. Sch. Dist. of Abington Township. v. Schempp, 374 U.S.
203 (1963).
4 See id.
5 505 U.S. 577 (1992).
6
7
403 U.S. 602 (1971).
Schempp, 374 U.S. at 203.
370 U.S. 421 (1962).
9 20 U.S.C. § 4071 (2000) (effective Aug. 11, 1984).
'
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[Vol. 9:2
religious accommodations available today in hospitals, shopping malls, and
airports.'" There are more houses of worship in our towns than there are schools for
,our children, providing ample opportunity for religious rituals without having to
bring them into the public schools." However, because America's children
apparently are not attending these worship services inany significant numbers,' 2 the
Christian community in America is taking the religion to where they have a captive
audience: the public schools.
Most of the political and social discourse concerning freedom of religion in our
nation's public schools has focused on how best to "accommodate" the needs of
those who wish to engage in religious rituals or form religious clubs. No discussion
has ever covered the problems associated with that religious expression, or the
rights of the other students who want to be free from such "religious rituals."
I receive a troubling amount of reports from people all across the country who
are having their rights to freedom of conscience and privacy violated by religious
students and school officials. The public schools are the inheritors of parental trust.
We send our children there with an implied agreement that theschool will provide
them with a safe environment and protect them from outside, unwanted, and
intrusive religious rituals in the education milieu.' Our children are there to be
educated, not to be prayed over.
There are too many instances where students who choose to opt out of religious
activities (like the "See You At The Pole" prayers or morning announcements
complete with prayers) are marginalized, told to "get right with God," insulted, and
made the targets of proselytization (because in the Bible, Jesus tells the disciples to
"go therefore and make disciples of all nations,"' 4 many feel obligated to "witness"
to us for our own good). Atheists are told that if a speeding car was heading toward
us, would we not want the Christian to tell us about it so that we might be saved?
Those who think they know a god and have its blessing think that Atheists must be
'oSee,e.g., NATIONAL DIRECTORY OF CHURCHES, SYNAGOGUES, AND OTHER HOUSES OF
WORSHIP
(J. Gordon Melton & John Krol eds., 1st ed. 1994) (listing these institutions).
See id.; see also U.S. DEP'T OF EDUC., NAT'L. CTR. FOR EDUC. STATISTICS, DIGEST OF
EDUCATION STATISTICS 1999, at 14 (2000) (Table 5: Educational Institutions), availableat
"
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2000/200003 1.pdf (last visited Oct. 31, 2000).
2 See Bama Research Group, The State of the Church, 2000 (Mar. 21,2000), available
at http://www.bama.orglcgi-binlpagepressrelease.asp?pressreleaselD=49 (last visited Oct.
19, 2000) (reporting decreasing church attendance in the United States); see also Bama
Research Group, Teenager'sBeliefs Moving FartherFrom Biblical Perspectives(Oct. 23,
2000), available at http://www.barna.orglcgi-bin/PagePressRelease.asp?PressReleaselD=73
(last visited Nov. 3, 2000) (describing a perceived decreasing orthodoxy among selfdescribed Christian teenagers).
13 See, e.g., Vemonia Sch. Dist. 47J v. Acton, 515 U.S. 646 (1995) (citing I W.
BLACKSTONE, COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND 441 (1769)).
"4Matthew 28:19.
.2001]
STUDENT SYMPOSIUM SPEECH TRANSCRIPT
converted "for our own good.". For some it is an obsession.
It is not always realistic to assume that administrators, counselors, or other
officials in a school where such incidents take place, can "self-police" or correct the
problem because in many cases, they are the cause of the problem. For example,
in 1998, a Montgomery, Alabama school bus driver told a boy to take part in Bible
readings on the way to school or find another way to get there.'" In New York, a
teacher named Mildred Rosario was dismissed for leading her sixth-grade students
in prayer and "healing" services.' 6
It is notjust proselytization that is the problem, it is the insults and the bullying
behavior that concern us as well. Being an Atheist youth today is like being gay in
America. If you do not participate in the religious activities, whether they are
religious songs in the choir or morning prayers, you are automatically identified as
a "conscientious objector" and isolated.
Some religious clubs, like the one at Heath High School in Paducah,
Kentucky,"7 conduct their activities not in the privacy of a meeting room (as most
other student groups do), but in hallways, lobbies, or lunchrooms, sometimes
obstructing entrances or positioning themselves so that others must take notice.
Unfortunately, neither the Secretary of Education's Religious Expression In
Public Schools" nor the Federal Equal Access Act 9 provide sufficient legal
mechanisms to prevent religiously-motivated harassment in the public schools.
The problem with mixing religionand government, something the Founding
Fathers knew and what we see today, is the abuse that results. Notably, it is almost
exclusively members of the Christian religion that take advantage of every
opportunity to inject their beliefs into public settings. The extent to which they
cannot be trusted is highlighted by the fact that in DeKalb County, Alabama, there
have been recurrent problems involving student religious expression over a school
public address system, in classrooms, and at athletic events.2" Federal Judge Ira
DeMent, who overturned Alabama's school prayer law, has had to admonish and
warn Christian administrators that continued disregard for the guidelines affirmed
in his rulings could result in further legal action. 2' The court has actually had to
field "monitors" in these schools to ensure that the First Amendment is recognized
See Driver ReassignedOver Bible Row, B. GLOBE, Oct. 18, 1998, at A14.
See Jacques Steinberg & Macarena Hernandez, TeacherIs Now PoliticalCause After
Dismissal for Class Prayer, N.Y. TIMES, June 26, 1998, at BI.
'
16
" See Stephen Braun, Divide In Schools More Than Spiritual, L.A. TIMES, May 9, 1998,
at Al.
" U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley, Religious Expression In PublicSchools
(Aug. 10, 1995), available at http://www.ed.gov/Speeches/08-1995/religion.html.
1920 U.S.C. § 4071 (2000).
20 See Chandler v. James, 998 F. Supp. 1255, 1265 (M.D. Ala. 1997).
at 1288.
21 See id.
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because the students and administrators could not be trusted to follow the law.22
People for the American Way reported that an investigation of the Florida
public school districts' "Bible History" programs found that they are biased, unfair,
The courses were taught from a Christian, usually
and unconstitutional.'
Protestant, perspective and included proselytizing although officials knew full well
that this was not permitted.24 The Bible was used as a history text in these courses,
which taught that the universe was created as stated in the Bible and that the story
of Noah's flood was an historical event."
American Atheists supports the study of the intersection of human origins and
development, their socio-political and cultural influences, and the principles of
diverse world religions as a valuable part of any young person's education. This
curriculum cannot be accomplished in atrue and impartial way inour country today
because our nation is saturated in the Christian religion. We have always feared a
"whitewash" of Christianity, and this is what has happened in Florida.
Students must be made aware in any "religion courses" that there has always
been dissent both with regard to religion in general and to doctrinal disputes within
and between denominations. The textbooks now offered by major publishers
contain, substantively, a picture of religion as the savior of modern civilization.
The negative aspects of religion are what have been dropped from the texts and
curriculum, not the mention of religion as some argue.
Another recent example of where Christians have ignored the courts is in
Stephenville, Texas, where a group of students "smuggled" a sound system into a
football game in order to broadcast prayers to the captive audience.2" This occurred
after the courts had declared such activity unconstitutional. 2 This is not about
sincere piety, it is about sincere power. It is about being seen. It is about being
heard. In the public schools, you will see the Christian pray (that is why the clubs
move from the classroom to the halls), you will hearthem praying and, if necessary,
you will be told to stop what you are doing in order for them to pray (as in the
organized moments of silence).
We disagree with the concept of students voting or deciding whether or not to
engage in religious rituals in the public schools because the Bill of Rights is not
See id. at 1279.
See Judith E. Schaeffer& Elliott M. Mincberg, The Good Book Taught Wrong: "Bible
History" Classes in Florida'sPublic Schools (2000), available at http://www.pfaw.org/
issues/liberty/florida bible.shtml (last visited Oct. 2, 2000).
24 See id. at4, 8.
21 See id. at 3, 8.
26 See Victoria Loe Hicks, New Football Matchup: Church vs. State; Texas Town
Energizes Debate Over School Prayerwith Pre-GameMessage, DALLAS MORNING NEWS,
Nov. 7, 1999, at IA.
27 See Doe v. Santa Fe Indep. Sch. Dist., 168 F.3d 806, 822-23 (5th Cir. 1999), affdby
530 U.S. 290 (2000).
22
23
20011
STUDENT SYMPOSIUM SPEECH TRANSCRIPT
459
something that can be subjected to popular Vote. Organized prayers are not about
freedom of speech for the simple fact that if any Atheist asked for the same
opportunity to speak about their deeply-held philosophy of Atheism, the concept of
free speech for all students would go out the window.
In Utah, for instance, the Federal Equal Access Act was used to defend the "free
speech rights" of students who wanted to form religious clubs; but when a gaystraight alliance student support group was founded, school officials, Senator Orrin
Hatch, and Governor Leavitt quickly abandoned their enthusiasm for free speech.28
Senator Hatch declared that the purpose of the Equal Access Act was not to permit
the establishment of "those sorts of clubs," only religious groups.29 When it comes
to free speech, the door all too often swings one way. A student group supporting
homosexual rights sued suburban Denver's Cherry Creek Public School District in
1998 for refusing to recognize it as an official club at Smoky Hill High School.30
A similar situation had played out in California, where the Orange County Board
of Education tried to prevent meetings of a gay tolerance club at El Mordena High
School by enacting restrictive regulations for clubs in direct violation of the Equal
Access Act.3
The "Equal" in "Equal Access" clearly needs to be strengthened. The idea that
the religious activities in the public schools are student-initiated is dubious at best.
They may be student-led, but they are outside-organized. Some of the outside
organizations formed to encourage students to engage in religious activities in
school are the Scriptures in School, Student Venture and Junior Venture for junior
high students, Campus Outreach for Youth, The Fellowship of Christian Athletes,
First Priority, the National Network of Youth Ministries (which coordinates the
"See You At The Pole" activities), and the'Southern Baptists' state youth
evangelization program, to name a few. These organizations are actively using
students to recruit and proselytize in the public schools.
In order to prevent more problems with religion in the schools, the separation
between state and church must be strengthened. Congress has already enacted laws,
with significant penalties, against sexual harassment, 2 but it needs to enact similar
legislation, with penalties, protecting all students against religious harassment and
discrimination in our schools. All majorities must know that there are consequences
See Dan Harrie, Leavitt, HatchSay Schools Have Right to Ban Gay Clubs, SALT LAKE
TRIB., Feb. 10, 1996, at AI.
29 See James Brooks, To Be Young, Gay, and Going to High School in Utah,N.Y. TIMES,
28
Feb. 28, 1996, at B8 (quoting a "fuming" Senator Hatch as saying: "The act was never
intended to promulgate immoral speech or activity.").
30 See Renate Robey, School Districtto Recognize Gay, HeterosexualClub, DENVER
POST, Feb. 28, 1998, at BI.
31 See Alex Katz, Gay-StraightClub's Battle Is Won, L.A. TIMES, Sept. 18,2000, at BI.
32
See, e.g., 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2 (2000) (prohibiting workplace sex discrimination).
460
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for the abuse of a minority group of 'citizens. The decision to embrace or reject
religious belief and rituals must be respected. The courts must protect our right to
freedom of conscience and, therefore, freedomfrom religion.